Live Review: The Maccabees

Manchester Academy 2
06/05/07

Reviewer: Kelly Murray

After the disappointing news that dancing ska wonder kid Jack Penate has pulled out of the show due to illness, all hopes are pinned on South London’s popular export…

After a big slice of success last year, the quintet got signed to Polydor and a lot flattering press attention later, results in what in what I’m looking at; a venue full to the brim of adoring teens, singing merrily along to what the NME once called ‘the best new band in Britain’. Tonight seems to be a telltale sign that the media has once again done its job; it is after all another sell-out date The Maccabees.

Well, I must say I seem to be in the minority missing the hype here. Ok, so they look like they know what they’re doing, they perform well as a unit. They give off a lot of energy and have crowd interaction down to a T, but the vital part of the set, i.e., stand out tracks you can have a bloody good dance to, appear to be hiding. Simply refusing to come out and play due to a crippling shyness causing immobility from the waist down. Either that or The Maccabees haven’t actually written the songs that are destined to blow some of us away yet.

Singer Orlando Weeks does have a charming voice, but it doesn’t carry well with the loud guitars live. The slower ‘Toothpaste kisses’ gives his struggling vocal more of a chance but by this time I’ve almost lost interest. After an average start to the set, it doesn’t actually pick up. With the recent boom in dance/indie electro, will The Maccabees remain at top of their sell out success for years to come? I don’t think so. Decide for yourself folks, but I won’t be heading back to camp Maccabee for more low-key entertainment any time soon.

www.themaccabees.co.uk

www.myspace.com/themaccabees